But the expertise required for smooth
operation of the industry has not developed in a significant extent with this
expansion, the experts said.
The new ship-breaking yards suffer from
lack of expertise and skilled workers, which has increased accidents in recent
years. Records say 15 workers died and 30 others sustained injuries in mishaps
at shipbreaking yards in the last 10 months alone, the latest being four deaths
at Subedar Ship Breaking Yard in Sitakunda on Sunday.
Engineer Emran Hossain, a master
mariner and instructor at BSBA Training Institute, said there is no training
institute for workers in this sector to develop skills and expertise. Most
workers at shipbreaking yards are illiterate and have no knowledge of health
and safety measures, he said.
The workers do not even have any idea
of how to scrap ships systematically, so accidents take place off and on due to
this lack of expertise and awareness, he Emran Hossain said.
According to him, BSBA Training
Institute has been working for the last 6 months in this regard and has trained
about 600 ship scrap workers, and another 300 are receiving training.
"We are training them on personal
protective equipment (PPE) and some other techniques of scrapping ships," he
said.
But only training is not sufficient, he
warned -- "involvement of marine engineers and experts is required in
scrapping ships to avoid accidents."
BSBA president Hefazutur Rahman said
even trained workers are not willing to take safety measures and so most
accidents take place mainly due to lack of awareness and unwillingness to take
safety measures.
Admitting that paucity of awareness is
the main reason for accidents at shipbreaking yards, director at the
Directorate of Environment (DoE) Zafar Alam said the tendency of minimising
cost of operation by owners at these yards is also responsible for mnishaps. Referring
to this week's accident at Jiri Subedar Steel Shiprbeaking Yard, which left
four workers dead, Zafar Alam said its owner had hurried somewhat in breaking
the ship and started scrapping it without the 'No Objection Certificate' (NOC) from
the Environment Department. Lack of awareness among workers was another cause
of the accident, he said.
Zafar said the investigation team had
found that no safety measures were taken for the workers while they were trying
to clean gas from a gas cylinder in the ship.
Director of Bangladesh Environment
Lawyers' Association (BELA) Rezwana Hasan said Industries minister and
Environment minister are backing the shipbreaking industry by contending that
the industry has developed expertise and skilled workers and is not destroying
the environment as much as it did earlier. But she said shipbreakers in
Sitakunda are not following directives of the High Court, and many government
and non-government agencies are supporting them. She also blamed the lax
monitoring of DoE, Explosive Department, Labour Department and Industries
Ministry for the increasing number of accidents in the industry.
President of Shipbreaking Yard Sramik
Karmachari Federation Safar Ali said, "Most scrap ships got into the
country are oil tankers. These tankers are highly hazardous and almost all
yards lack the necessary safety measures and skilled workers for scrapping
those ships’. The ship breakers must emphasize on developing expertise and
skilled workers and ensure all the lawful facilities for the workers to reduce
the number of the number of accident in the industry, he added.
Source: By Mizanur Rahman Yousuf. 21 October 2011
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